White Sox 7, Tigers 4: Eighth-inning rally decides series

The traditional followed-from-work bullet-point recap:

*The White Sox made Detroit's bullpen look ... familiar ... by batting around during a four-run eighth inning. Jose Abreu led off with a single on an 0-2 slider from Shane Greene, then scored on Justin Morneau's double to right center, tying the game at 4.

*Todd Frazier (batting .165 with runners in scoring position) chased a 3-1 slider off the plate and blew up his bat on a bouncer to the mound, but Avisail Garcia (batting .333 with RISP) picked him up with a single through the middle. Another pitching change made no difference, as Tyler Saladino and Adam Eaton followed with RBI singles of their own off Justin Wilson.

*That gave David Robertson (pitching the fourth straight game) the largest possible cushion, and it came in handy when he allowed singles to start the inning. They remained stranded on first and second, as Robertson closed out his 35th save with a strikeout, flyout and strikeout.

*Chris Beck picked up the win, evening his ledger in this series by throwing 1⅓ scoreless innings and stranding a runner on second.

*The White Sox offense took Jose Quintana off the hook. Robin Ventura did that thing where he leaves in his starter well past the danger zone in an attempt to finish an inning, and Jose Iglesias torched Quintana for a go-ahead ground-rule double on the 116th and final pitch of his start, which ended two outs into the seventh.

*Quintana's day ended poorly. It didn't start that well, either, as he gave up two singles and a Justin Upton homer in the second as the score became 3-1 in a flash. In between, he was his steady self, as the Tigers failed to reach scoring position between the third and sixth innings.

*Melky Cabrera helped Quintana's cause by throwing out Victor Martinez at second after a single to start the fourth, and Quintana picked off Ian Kinsler in the sixth after a leadoff single.

*The White Sox offense made Anibal Sanchez look ordinary, but they couldn't quite kill him. They started quick, as Tim Anderson singled with one out and came around on a Cabrera double for a 1-0 lead, but Abreu rounded first too much on his single, and was caught in a rundown after the throw home was cut off. Cabrera tried to score, but ended up being the runner to pay the price for Abreu's TOOTBLAN.

*Cabrera narrowed Detroit's lead to 3-2 in the third inning thanks to an RBI single that fell in front of the deep-positioned Upton. Abreu tied the game at 3 with a sac fly.

*The Sox were able to muster a couple two out rallies in successive innings, but neither resulted in a run. Sanchez limited the Sox to three runs despite allowing nine baserunners over five innings (with a Kinsler error on top).

*Abreu continued his torrid hitting, going 3-for-4 to raise his average to .298.

*The Tigers get the last laugh, as they finished the season series 12-7 against the Sox.

Record: 67-72 | Box score | Highlights